It's a Lonely Quest for Land-Tax Fans, But, by George, They Press On

With the economy sluggish and cities starved for revenue, Los Angeles producer
Charles Ashira
figured the world was ready for a big-screen biopic of his financial hero.

But "
Henry George
—the Movie" is going nowhere fast.

Investors, it seems, don't share his fascination with Mr. George, a political economist who gained fame in 1879 with a runaway best seller, "Progress and Poverty."

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Henry George
Mary Evans Picture Library/Everett Collection

Mr. George's main idea was that governments should have just one tax—on land. The "land value tax," he suggested, could boost the economy, smooth income disparities, and encourage development of empty lots.

"It's a win-win-win scenario for the rich, the poor and the middle class," says Mr. Ashira, who runs a production company called BackHome Pictures. "It's an idea whose time has come."

The cool reception to the message is a hallmark of one of the loneliest of economic missions: "Georgism."

Mr. George died in 1897 while running for mayor of New York. But thousands of "Georgists" world-wide continue promoting his ideas at town halls, with brochures, books, schools, compact discs, cartoons and walking tours.

"When you've tried everything, try Henry George," says
Joshua Vincent,
a historian and statistician who runs a Georgist group called the Center for the Study of Economics in the house where Henry George was born in Philadelphia.

It is a tough sell. Mr. Vincent says he has been swung at, called a communist and a capitalist. Recently, he drove nine hours through the snow to give a presentation on Georgism in Rochester, N.Y. When he walked into a giant gym, he says, just three residents waited.

Only about 20 towns in the U.S. have adopted the land value tax. In Australia the concept is widespread, and it has surfaced in Taiwan.

"Are they still around?" asks
Benjamin Hayllar,
the former finance director for Philadelphia, where Georgists have stepped up lobbying.

Mr. Hayllar was also once finance director in Pittsburgh, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary of having a George-centered system that applies a higher tax rate to the land.

Mr. Hayllar is skeptical that the system works. "Everybody is just looking for an easy answer," he says.

Milton Friedman
called it "the least bad tax." Philosopher
Ludwig von Mises
dismissed it as socialism.
Marx
labeled it "capitalism's last ditch."

In the U.K.,
Winston Churchill
endorsed the idea. Now, more than 100 years later, Parliament is scheduled in April to debate a bill to explore a land value tax.

In New York,
Scott Baker,
a novelist and president of Georgist organization Common Ground, began a petition two years ago for New York state to adopt a land value tax. It has collected just 175 signatures online.

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A frame from Common Ground
Common Ground-NYC

"When people hear the word 'tax' they immediately turn off," he says. He even explains the concept in a cartoon called "Tax and the City."

Bill Batt, a retired professor and former member of the New York state legislative tax committee, says he was rejected by an acquaintance in the New York governor's office when he recently suggested a meeting with tax officials.

The acquaintance told him that people familiar with the idea labeled it "the Henry George tax" and none "thought it was worth pursuing further." A spokesman for the New York governor's office declined to comment.

"It's an uphill struggle," says Mr. Batt.

Ted Gwartney recently retired as tax assessor in Greenwich, Conn., and moved to Anaheim, Ca. He says that having a higher assessment on land in Greenwich helped the city financially, so he would like to push for a similar system in California. He is planning to raise $10 million from businesses and wealthy individuals to get a California initiative passed to consider eliminating taxes—except on land.

Mr. Gwartney, vice president of the Council of Georgist Organizations, an umbrella group, said he learned about Henry George in college in the 1960s, which persuaded him to "spend my life in assessment."

That wide-eyed discovery can still be found at the Henry George School, which offers free classes on Georgist philosophy in cities including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

"It is heartwarming to see the formation of a micro-community: a dozen or so people who do not know each other get together and after an hour or so are debating economic and social policy," says
Billy Fitzgerald,
a trustee for the school in New York.

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Henry George

But he says enrollment has slid to 300 students annually—about half the level of the 1990s, partly because people are getting more information online rather than in classes.

David Giesen,
a schoolteacher who runs the Henry George Historical Society in San Francisco, had drawn an average of 33 people a month for a walking tour every Saturday, although attendance has recently waned.

He strives to recruit one Georgist a year. "It's a modest goal," says Mr. Giesen. "But, still, it is formidable."

In Cambridge, Mass., a George-inspired group called the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy funded a CD set of Mr. George's writings. And it distributes materials explaining the land value tax, as well as other tools that help municipalities raise revenues.

But the organization's chief,
Greg Ingram,
a former World Bank executive who taught economics at Harvard, is skeptical. Land taxes alone, he calculates, would account for just 5% to 10% of the GDP—not enough to save the economy.

"If you think Georgism is going to be the singular solution to all our problems," he says, "you're going to be disappointed."

The institute was funded by a late Georgist named
John Lincoln.
Now, his 87-year-old son,
David Lincoln,
says he often is contacted by Georgists. Among recent visitors was Mr. Ashira, the producer, who has focused on television commercials but became so enamored with Mr. George's philosophy that he wants to do a movie on the man.

"I told him we won't fund it now," Mr. Lincoln says. "When you're out for a Saturday night of entertainment, you don't want to study economics."

Besides, there is already a documentary out called "The End of Poverty?" It was funded by another Georgist group called the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation.

Mr. Ashira sent an email to 900 other Georgists, promising a new movie "that will lay the groundwork for a popular embrace of Henry George's philosophy, the like of which has not existed for more than a hundred years."

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